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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

~ Blue quilt marker = BROWN marks ***Removing ~

Good Morning sweet quilting friends! Today I'd like to share with you my recent battle of the WATER SOLUBLE BLUE MARKING PEN. I love them so much whenever I see a new style or brand I purchase one. Here are just the few I had on my cutting table pen holder.

I use them almost everyday to mark sewing and quilting lines. I've never had any issues with them until now. While doing a quick cleanup in the Studio I happen to notice a brown mark on my cute little wall hanging. The light must have been hitting it just the right way because it looks good from here, right?

But lets take a closer look...AKKK! WHY! HOW! OH NO! See the light brown line above the green?

And more brown lines a little farther down on the flower pot area. Obviously this one was never washed only spritzed with water. How could I forget to wash it? Whats a gal to do but run to the computer and google how to remove this ugly brown mess. After about an hour of research online I found nothing about removing these hideous little ghost residue lines. Of course they all said to wash the quilt as soon as its complete. To late for that!

If this were a new blue line the plan of action would be to wash in cool water. Since there is a lot of red in this wall hanging I was leery of cold water. So here's the plan. Soaking in cool water and vinegar is supposed to help remove old blue marks. Then I added blue Dawn Dish soap to help with the possible bleeding reds, and a couple color catcher to catch any red that might bleed off. How much of each?...I just squeezed in some Dawn I would say about 1/4 a cup, about 2 cups of White Vinegar and 2 color catchers.

Giving it a quick swish to mix it all together.

The bottle of vinegar was set on top to submerge the entire thing. Then it was left to set and work it's magic for about 12 hours.

Well there was no magic in this mixture, it looked a little fainter but the marks were still visible. So I scrubbed...still visible. If I dry this they may get darker and they would definitely be set in by the heat.

Plan 2...Hydrogen Peroxide. A quick soaking, a light hand scrub and let it stand for about 2 hours.

It didn't do anything.

Plan 3...dump the original mixture in the washer along with a half gallon of vinegar. I let it stand for a few hours then run a gentle cycle.

STUBBORN stain! It barely made a difference but it seemed a little lighter.

Plan 4...About 1/2 cup of Dawn dish detergent and Hot Water in a heavy duty cycle.

It looks like it might have worked! But is it all really gone?

Maybe, It sure looks gone.

But I'm not taking the chance and putting it in the dryer. So I hung it to dry in the studio in front of a fan.

After drying it looks good, but we'll see if the stain returns after hanging on the wall for a few months.

22 comments:

Humm--I also use these especially the ones by Collins and have not had a problem as long as I made sure it was all removed before ironing!! Maybe it is just one brand that did that--and the funny thing is-it is just in a couple areas--not the whole piece--hummm????

Thanks for sharing what you tried. I hope your solution is a permanent one! I do love my marking pens. Once completed quilting a row, I spray with a solution of 8 oz water and 1 tsp of baking soda. I have also had to use it even on the purple air erase markers as well. So far, so good.

Wow! At least you knew how to handle it! The blue Dawn dish soap prevents bleeding reds, huh? I have a pile of finished applique and pieced blocks that I realized too late had a red batik that bleeds. If I want to use Dawn to deal with it, should I soak all of the individual blocks in dishwater now, or set them into a quilt, quilt it, and then soak the finished quilt? It was so many hours of handwork already just making the blocks, the idea that the whole thing is going to be ruined just breaks my heart!

Synthrapol is a detergent used in dying fabric, and Reyayne is an rinse used in dying that suspends loose dye in the water and prevents it from bonding to other fabrics. (Bleeding) I would use those to avoid the red bleeding.

So good to know! I had a yellow chalk line not come out in my very first from my head applique wall hanging that I used to learn how to use my longarm on...never could get the yellow out! I like the white chalk since it always comes out, but I have used both the water-soluble blue and air-removed purple on my quilts to mark for quilting. I've not had your problem with them, but it is scary to think of this happening on a customer's quilt!!

Dawn and vinegar are dandy used together or alone as a cleaner. However, years ago we used to use vinegar to "set" the color, especially red. Just sayin'. What about borax or oxiclean? Would sunshine help?